Don't Grow Up
by Eyes of Passion
Summary: Yuuri receives some news about Greta that gets him in a tizzy.


It was tough to balance his life as a student on Earth with his life as the demon king in Shin Makoku and that was mostly because of the passage of time between two worlds. He could spend one day on Earth and have a week go by in the demon kingdom. It was especially tough now that he was a university student; his studies were that much more important. Aside from that, he had his duties as demon king to tend to, listening to the voice of the people: complaints both valid and ridiculous in nature, like wanting your king to play cupid for you, a notion that Wolfram found especially ridiculous, claiming that it was common sense to go to a matchmaker instead.

"A king has much more pressing matters to attend to," he had told him once.

Yuuri smiled as he stood before the bathtub and undressed. He hadn't seen Wolfram in a week, but it felt like much longer than that. Surely, it had to be longer for Wolfram. Maybe seven weeks: over a month! He turned on the water, sure to put it at a lukewarm temperature then turned off the faucet, stepping into the bath, conjuring the portal to the other world, picturing the royal bath in his mind. Yuuri allowed the water to suck him in, his disposition calm as opposed to all of the other times when he allowed panic to overcome him. He found himself in the enormous bathtub - which was more like a pool - emerged in the warm water. Yuuri rose to the surface, gasping for air. He expected to see his husband waiting for him, just outside the bath, ready for his standard greeting of: "About time you showed up," but Wolfram wasn't there.

Yuuri slipped on his clothes, a recreation of his high school uniform that was sewn together by one of the castle's maids, then entered the royal chambers. It was dark out, as expected (the time of day in both worlds seemed to correspond, oddly enough), and he spotted the lump underneath the covers of the luxurious canopy bed.

Yuuri changed into a pair of his pajamas that he left here that was kept in the wardrobe. Then ,careful as not to wake up Wolfram, he slowly slid underneath the covers. He heard his husband groan, stirring awake, his body turning over, his eyes fluttering open.

"Sorry to wake you," Yuuri apologized. He knew how exhausted Wolfram could be at the end of the day, having done border patrol.

Wolfram moved closer to him, languidly taking him into his arms. "Welcome back," his voice was deep with sleep and affection.

Yuuri's heart went ba-dump. His husband could be so cute sometimes. He hugged him close and laid a kiss on his forehead. "It's good to be back," he said, softly. "How's everything going? You doing okay?"

"Something did come up recently that concerns me," Wolfram said, sounding a little more awake.

"What is it?" Yuuri asked, rubbing the fabric over his back.

A big sigh escaped his lips. "It's Greta," he said, sadly. "She has had a couple of suitors as of late."

Yuuri's eyes nearly flew out if their sockets. "What?!" He exclaimed. "Since when? And why are you so calm about this? This is our little girl that we're talking about here!"

"Trust me, Yuuri, I don't like this any more than you do." Wolfram said. "But she's getting older now and attracting suitors at her age is unavoidable."

That struck Yuuri. Wolfram was right. With all of the back and forth between worlds that he has been doing, it was easy for this to escape his notice. Greta wasn't a little girl anymore. She was a teenager. It had happened so suddenly and time was a factor in this. Wolfram spent more time with their daughter so his calmness made sense. He had already processed the situation and now he was dealing with it. Yuuri just so happened to drop by in the middle of it all. He didn't realize it until now, but he really has been absent for a good chunk of her life. A pang went off in his chest.

"Yuuri?" Wolfram asked after a moment.

"I feel like such a cruddy dad," he confessed, pulling back. If such a thing as a time machine existed, he wanted to use it to go back in the past and kick his own ass.

"You're far from being a cruddy dad, Yuuri," Wolfram said this as if it was common sense.

"But I am," Yuuri argued. "I have been so busy thinking about my own life that I completely disregarded my daughter's. I must have missed so much while I was away."

A gentle hand stroked his face. "You have been here for the important parts," Wolfram assured. "You always make it a priority to come back for her birthday and you're always sure to spend time with her after you have taken care of your duties. It's true that she misses you when you're gone, but she understands that you have other matters to attend to, like the ones that you have in your world."

"Yeah, but still..." Yuuri trailed off. It sounded more like an excuse than a reason. What excuse was there to put himself before his daughter? There was none and it made him feel like a selfish jerk.

Wolfram sighed. "Don't be so hard on yourself." He kissed his cheek. " You're doing the best you can."

" But what if my best isn't good enough?" Yuuri asked.

"Look, now you're just being ridiculous." Wolfram accused. "Greta doesn't hold any of that against you, you hear me?" He cupped his face with both hands. Despite the dark, Yuuri could feel the intensity of his stare. "I wouldn't tolerate having such a negligent husband."

Yuuri smiled. Hearing that abated his worries somewhat. "I guess not," he agreed. He rolled on top of Wolfram, who was relaxed beneath him. "So, what kind of husband am I?"

"Well," he purred. "You are the kind of husband that fishes for compliments, that's for sure."

Yuuri laughed, then eased himself down to kiss Wolfram, who hummed in satisfaction and kissed him back.

* * *

The next day, Yuuri saw Greta come out of Anisinna's lab, wearing a brown-vested dress with a flowing blue skirt. Her brown hair was long and braided as opposed to the short hair that she had as a child. She gave him an open-mouthed smile and approached him, now standing up to his chest, and threw her arms around him.

"Hi, daddy." She greeted, peering up at him with cheerful hazel eyes.

His felt the beginning of tears. She was so cute. "Hey there, sweetie." He stroked her head.

She blinked. "Are you okay?"

"What?" Yuuri asked. "Why wouldn't I be okay? I mean, I'm here with my beautiful little girl, aren't I?" He couldn't hold back anymore. It was like using paper to hold back water pouring out of a broken dam. "And I guess now I'm not the only one that thinks that you're beautiful, aside from your father, because you're not a little girl anymore. You're a young woman now, and I regret that I wasn't able to spend more time with you when you were a little girl." He was bawling like a baby.

Greta wound her arms around his neck. "Oh, daddy." She said, sympathetic.

"I'm sorry," he sobbed.

"You have nothing to be sorry about." Greta soothed.

"Yes, I do." Yuuri objected. "I haven't been here enough for you." He pulled back and sniffed. Greta offered him her handkerchief. "Thank you." He blew his nose loud enough to attract the attention of some nearby guards. Abashed, he folded the now used handkerchief, and handed it back to Greta. "I'm going to spend more time here, with both you and your father."

Greta's face lit up before it dimmed with a frown. "But what about your world?" She asked. "Don't you have things that you need to do there, too?"

He nodded. "I do, but those things can wait." He reasoned. "I have to put my family first."

"What?" Greta asked, surprised. "No, you can't do that!"

Yuuri was taken off guard by her sudden outburst. "Why not?"

"I don't want you to give up the things in your world for me. Papa feels the same way."

"But I can't keep doing that to the both of you," Yuuri protested. "It's really selfish of me."

"There's nothing wrong with that," Greta defended. "Papa and I miss you a lot when you're gone, but we're okay with that. We know that you want to be a professional baseball player and we want you to achieve that goal. We're rooting for you, daddy."

The tears sprung up again, and he hugged her, and kissed the crown if her head. "You're the best daughter ever, did you know that?" He asked, truly touched by how mature and understanding his beautiful daughter was. In the next moment, he held her by the shoulders, looked her in the eye and urged. "Could you just do something for me, please? Stop growing. Just stop. My heart just can't take it. I don't want some stupid punk to come sweep you up and take you away from me."

Greta chuckled. "You sound just like Father."

"And he's right. Guys are nothing but a bunch of no-good scumbags."

"How could you say that?" She asked, confused. "You're a guy, too. Besides, who says that it has to be a guy?" Her cheeks grew red.

Yuuri was speechless.

* * *

Later on, he was in bed with Wolfram, who was reading a book.

"Hey, Wolf?"

He received a hum that prodded him to go on.

"We should find a nice, big deserted island to live on and bring Greta with us and just live there for the rest of our lives."

Wolfram didn't say anything. He just rubbed his leg as he burst out crying again.

* * *

A/N: I typed this story up on my new phone today and I like the way that it turned out. I've been wanting to write something like this for a while. Thank you for reading and please drop a review!


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